DESARROLLO GENITAL DESARROLLO DEL VELLO PUBIANO

Faith’s dedication to her education is apparent as well as her determination to succeed. Though she found success, she also acknowledges that she faced gender-based ideologies along the way. She experienced some difficulty in convincing her father that she should or could do certain things. She explained:

In our own home, sometimes my dad will say “You’re a woman you can’t…” And I say “so what, I’m a woman, why can’t I do as much as a man” In a way, I think his views have changed because I have siblings who have also gone off to school. It’s just crazy in the Somali community -- and other cultures too-- for so long they made it seem like women can’t do as much as men, but I think women are starting to realize, “yes, we can.” And I think that’s how I think feminism has come into existence in the Somali community. Because there’s a lot of women who try to fight for women’s right.

(Faith, Interview 2)

Faith mentions a ‘yes we can’ ideology that is present among the women in her life. Her mother has instilled this ideology in her. As she explains her mother does not have the typical mentality of a Somali woman when it comes to gender and participation:

…at home, my Mom she doesn’t really go by--I know a lot of women have to listen to their husbands -- my mom isn’t like that; she’s open-minded, and I think she gets that from her father. I think it goes back to the kind of household you grew up in. I mean, my Mom cooks, but I know also that’s not her only role. Of course, she got a high school diploma. In America, that’s not much. But in Africa, in high school, they learn a lot; they know a lot. She’s -- I think growing up at home; she didn’t really listen to him. He doesn’t really tell her what to do. I think that’s where I get my own style of not listening to “the man” comes from

(Faith, Interview 1)

Faith suggests her experience of going to college was a huge accomplishment, and something that made her stand out from the rest of her family. Faith found inspiration from her mother to pursue education at a higher level, despite pressure to stay home. She describes her experience below:

Yeah. Even back to just at home--I was the first to move out of my parent’s house. I was the first to be able to go out and be a woman. Now that I’ve done that my sisters are able to do that, too, because, they see that. My dad kind of put a fear in us saying, “You’re a woman; you can’t go away” My mom is not like that --I'd rather tell my Mom. When I left

Minnesota my dad found out the day before, which my Mom already knew and told me she was okay with it. My Dad still has that mindset of “Oh, you’re a woman and this and that” it just goes in one ear and out the other

(Faith, Interview 1)

Faith’s move to go to college, out of the state of Georgia, to Minnesota, was a pronounced way of pursuing higher education, in her family. In order to live out her goals, she had to challenge her father’s ideas, go against his wishes, and hide her intentions to move until the last moment possible. Her mother’s and sisters’ support encouraged her.

At the time of the study, Faith was living at her parents’ home, seeking employment after graduating with her Master’s degree. She was once again in a position to move out of her home,

and she was once again getting some disapproval from her father. She believes there are reasons she was working at the Center:

My Mom has been supportive; my Dad to this day he wants me to stay here, to stay home, but he knows that there’s no way. Yeah, he even told [the director of the Center] that I have to stay here.

(Faith, Interview 2)

Faith shared that the reason she was working at the Center as a case manager for a few months was because of her father and his attempt to keep her at home after returning from

university in Minnesota. He had personally talked to the director in order to try to secure a job for Faith. Faith discusses her father’s attempts to keep her close to home:

C: Do you think he feels tension that you’re working in the community now? Do you think that influences him?

F: Yeah he also told [the director] that I wanted to leave...so that’s how I think [the

director] came to try to get me to be here...but me being here doesn’t change my views. He wants me to be home. Even when I was leaving on my trip to San Francisco; he didn’t even know--I just left. I openly do that.

(Faith, Interview 2)

Faith was looking for other jobs the duration of her time working as a case manager at the Center. She explains her career goals and her family’s resistance to her goals below:

Yeah in terms of like having goals...like moving out after I find a job. I was talking to my sister and she was like “It’s not right you are going to be moving out. I can’t believe you are moving out!” But that’s what I worked for. I am trying to leave a comfortable life, not trying to live under someone’s rules. I’m, sorry that she said that because we have a lot of the same views, almost the same views. But when she said that I was like “Are you crazy? After I have worked so hard to live a comfortable life, to live on my own.” I don’t know where she got that from...I bet someone probably hit her on the head (laughs)

(Faith, Interview 1)

Faith was able to overcome some of the traditional gender based barriers. Her determination and negotiation of competing ideologies within her family played a role in her socialization.

6.2.3 Experiences in the CoP

6.2.3.1 Racialization

As a case manager at the Center, Faith, although only for a temporary time, was an integral member of the CoP. Even so, she was not always perceived to be a member of the CoP. This was in part because people, other Somalis, often did not perceive her to be Somali. I have observed multiple occasions in the Center when someone walks in to seek assistance and they will completely ignore Faith, at her desk, assuming she isn’t Somali. They will sit down and look around, also assuming (correctly) that I speak only English. Faith usually has to initiate the conversation with the client. They then realize that she is in fact Somali.

I observed similar behavior one day when Faith was working with us at the after school program. She was sitting at a table helping a group of children with their homework. At that point, she had only been speaking English with the children. She overheard one of the boys at the table talking to his brother about a drawing he was completing. He said something along the lines of “who is that girl, you gave her a big old behind”. Faith wasn’t pleased with his discussion so she decided to intervene. In English, she told the boy that he better “watch his mouth”. He told her that he didn’t say anything bad. They then went back and forth discussing what he said until the boy said something along the lines of “you aren’t Somali, so you don’t know”. Up until that point, Faith had been trying to conduct the conversation in English, and so she finally spoke to him in Somali. He was shocked and remained silent the remainder of the program period.

I’ve discussed these misidentifications with Faith, and she said that perhaps it is because she doesn’t have “typical Somali features” and people think that she is “African-American” rather than “Somali-American”. My own initial perception of Faith was that she wasn’t Somali, in part because of her atypical features, and because when she first visited the Center she did not cover her hair, unlike most of the Somali women that visit. Faith’s experience is yet another example of the

“racialization” that occurs (Bigelow, 2008) 6.2.3.2 Gender-based ideologies

Faith shares that the members of the CoP need to be educated about gender. Having experienced firsthand gender based ideologies in her home and in the community, she said:

I think I would try to educate them on the cultural components. Somalians have a hard time trying to separate culture and religion and I would try educate them on those

differences. For example, when it comes to men and women, it doesn’t say nowhere that men are supposed to have more freedom than women. They try to make it seem like it’s the religion too, because like my Dad has done that before, but after I knew that’s not true, I was like “No.”

(Faith, Interview 2)

Faith believes that members of the CoP need to understand that religion does not influence the freedom of women, but the culture and the ideas. She comments that her own father has this belief and that it influences his own thinking.

6.3 Mama Mouna